March 8, 2013 Roast Duck L’ Orange with rice medley and asparagus

March 8, 2013 Roast Duck L’ Orange with rice medley and asparagus

I love duck with wild rice, so at around 4:00 p.m. I thawed a package of two duck halves and at 5:00 started a pot of wild rice (the ratio is about three to one, water to rice and I probably cooked about 2/3 cup of wild rice at a simmer for about 1 1/2 hours until the rice popped open.  When Suzette came home at around 6:00 she sprayed a roasting pan with Pam and we pricked the ducks with a knife to allow the fat to flow out of the duck and put the duck halves on the rack of a roasting pan and put them into a 425˚ oven on the convection setting for 15 minutes and then reduced the heat to 350˚ for an additional 15 minutes until the duck’s skin turned golden brown.  We then discussed what green vegetable we had and I suggested that we use up the remaining asparagus, of which there were about ten stalks left.  So I snapped the stalks and steamed them for about ten minutes.  Suzette asked if I wanted L’ orange sauce and I said yes, so I fetched the PPI L’ orange sauce from the fridge and in a zen like approach added n the juice of an 1/8 of a fresh lemon, about 2 Tbsp. of Madeira and the slices from one orange and about 2/3 of one packet of the prepared orange sauce that comes with the duck halves (Costco, $13.99).

Suzette wanted to make croutons, so I fetched the Italian bread sticks and the PPI Fano baguette and she cut them into squares and tossed them in a bag with olive oil and put them into the oven with the duck to cook for about twenty minutes at 350˚.

I had put too much water in the wild rice so I drained it and while the Sauce L’ Orange was heating, Suzette put the PPI rice with sugar snap peas, parsley and sun dried tomatoes into the wild rice pot with 1 Tbsp. of butter and stirred and heated the pot for about three or four five minutes more to thoroughly heat the rice.

I went to the basement for a bottle of 2010 Valreas Cotes du Rhone (Trader Joe’s $5.99) that was heavy and had a dark purple claret-like color and went really well with the greasy duck.  We plated up the dinner and had a lovely meal.  After dinner there was still some wine, so I ate some blue cheese and warm croutons with some more wine for a little cheese course.

Bon Appétit